wood. In this way a fine crimson lake, imitating the cochineal carmine, may be pre pared, which therefore consists of alumine, intimately combined with the colouring matter of the wood a little heightened. Nitro-muriate of tin added to the decoction separates the whole of the colouring matter, which falls down in great abundance in union with the oxide of tin, and the liquor remains colourless.

The solutions of iron blacken the decoc tion or infusions of brazil wood, shewing the presence of the gallic acid. Many of the other metallic solutions act similarly to that of tin, in forming lakes, consisting of the colouring matter of the wood united with the metallic oxide of the solution employed. See DYEING.

BRAZING, the soldering or joining two pieces of iron together by means of thin plates of brass, melted between the pieces that are to be joined. If the work be very fine, as when two leaves of a broken saw are to be brazed together, they cover it with pulverized borax, melted with water, that it may incorporate with the brass pow. der, which is added to it; the piece is then exposed to the fire without touching the coals, and heated till the brass is seen to

run.

Brazing is also used for the joining two pieces of iron together by beating them hot, the one upon the other, which is used for large pieces by farriers; this is more properly welding.

BREACH, in fortification, a gap made in any part of the works of a town by the cannon or mines of the besiegers, in order to make an attack upon the place. To make the attack more difficult, the besieged sow the breach with crow-feet, or stop it with chevaux de frize. A practicable breach is that where the men may mount and make a lodgment, and ought to be fifteen or twenty fathoms wide. The besiegers make their way to it, by covering themselves with gabions, earth-bags, &c.

BREACH, in a legal sense, is where a person breaks through the condition of a bond or covenant, on an action upon which, the breach must be assigned; and this assignment must not be general, but particular, as in an action of covenant for not repairing houses, it ought to be assigned particularly what is the want of reparation; and in such certain manner, that the defendant may take an issue.

BREAD is a light porous spongy substance, prepared by fermentation and

baking from the flour of certain farinaceous seeds, especially wheat, and is the principal sustenance of man in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere.

When flour is kneaded with water, it forms a tough paste, called dough, which, if kept in a warm place, swells, becomes spongy, and filled with a number of air-bubbles: in this state it is called leaven: and this leaven, if incorporated with fresh dough, will bring the whole into a fermenting state, much more speedily and uniformly than if the mass was exposed to spontaneous decomposition. But though leavened bread is perfect in every other respect, it always retains a slightly acidulous flavour from the leaven by which it is fermented; for it is impossible to carry the fermentation of the gluten to a sufficient extent to change in into leaven, without at the same time exciting the acid fermentation in the sugar of the flour. It was therefore a very important improvement in the art, and one which is attributable to the English bakers, to substitute yeast or the froth of maltliquor in a state of fermentation to leaven; for the former not only communicates ne unpleasant flavour to bread, but is also a more speedy ferment, and by acting first on the gluten of the flour produces the desired effect before any acid has time to be evolved from the other ingredients. The process of making common bread is extremely simple, though its perfect success depends considerably on a kind of knack in manipulation, which cannot be described by words. It is of essential consequence that the flour and yeast should be mixed together with perfect accuracy, in order that the whole mass may be equally fermented, and that this action may commence in every part at the same time. Now, though in the making of a single loaf this may easily be effected at one continued process, yet where a considerable quantity of bread is to be made at once, this is impracticable. See BAKING..

The changes produced upon dough by baking are very remarkable, nor can they in any degree be attributed to evaporation, since the loss of weight never ought to exceed, and is very often not greater than

In the first place the progress of fermentation is entirely stopped: the bread may be kept for several days without experiencing any alteration, and the first sign of spontaneous change is its becoming mouldy. Secondly, the tenacious ductility of the dough and its compact texture are

exchanged for a moderately firm and slightly elastic consistence, and a very spongy texture, in consequence of the alterations produced in the gluten by heat and moisture. Thirdly, the fecula or starch which was merely diffused through the dough, without being in any degree affected by the panary fermentation, is combined during the baking with a portion of water into a stiff jelly, like common starch when boiled with water, and thus renders the bread considerably more transparent than dough, as well as more digestible. Rye and barley are the only substances besides wheat that are capable of being made into bread, because they alone contain gluten enough to admit of being formed into a moderately tenacious paste with water. Even in these, however, the proportion of gluten is too small to afford light bread without the use of an acid ferment to disengage the proper quantity of carbonic acid; so that they can never for the purpose of the baker be at all comparable to wheaten flour.

BREAD fruit tree. See ARTOCARpus.
BREAD nut tree. See BRosimum.

BREAD room, in a ship, that destined to hold the bread or biscuit. The boards of the bread room should be well joined and caulked, and even lined with tin plates or mats. It is also proper to warm it well with charcoal for several days before the biscuit is put into it; since nothing is more injurious to the bread than moisture.

BREADTH, in geometry, one of the three dimensions of bodies, which, multiplied into their length, constitutes a surface.

BREAKERS, in maritime affairs, a name given to those billows that break violently over rocks lying under the surface of the sea. They are easily distinguished both by their appearance and sound, as they cover that part of the sea with a perpetual foam, and produce a hoarse and terrible roaring, very different from what the waves usually have in a deeper bottom. When a ship is driven among breakers it is hardly possible to save her, as every billow that heaves upwards serves to dash her down with additional force, when it breaks over the rocks or sands beneath.

BREAKING, in a mercantile stile, denotes the not paying one's bills of exchange accepted, or other promissory notes, when due; and absconding to avoid the severity of one's creditors. In which sense breaking is the same thing with becoming bankrupt. See Bankrupt.

BREAKING bulk, in the sea language, is the same with unlading part of the cargo.,

BREAMING, in maritime affairs, burnoff the filth, such as grass, ooze, shells, or sea-weed, from the ship's bottom, which it has contracted by lying long in the harbour: it is performed by holding kindled furze, faggots, &c. which by melting the pitch that formerly covered it, loosens whatever filth may have adhered to the planks. The bottom is then covered anew. This operation may be performed either by laying the ship aground after the tide has ebbed from her, or by docking, or careening. See CAREEN

ING.

BREAST, in anatomy, denotes the forepart of the thorax. See ANATOMY.

BREASTS, two glandulous tumours, of a roundish oval figure, situated on the anterior, and a little towards the lateral parts of the thorax. See ANATOMY.

BREAST work, in military affairs, is an elevation thrown up around a fortified place, to conceal or protect the garrison, and which is at the same time so strong that the enemies' shot cannot pierce it. The terms breast work and parapet are frequently used without any distinction, but the former is more applicable in a general sense; a parapet implying more immediately that breast work which is raised upon the rampart of a fortified town.

BRECCIA, a term employed by Italian statuaries to denote those kinds of marble which are really or apparently composed of angular fragments of marble, cemented together by a posterior infiltration of calcareous spar or marble. The French have adopted the term, and extended its meaning so as to include any strong mass composed of angular fragments consolidated by a cement. Hence they subdivide the term breche into calcareous, magnesian, silicious, and argillaceous, taking care to discriminate it from amygdaloid or pondingere, (from the English pudding stone) by restricting the meaning of this latter to stony masses, formed of rounded pebbles, imbeded in a cement.

BREDEMEYERA, in botany, a genus of the Diadelphia Octandria: calyx threeleaved; corolla papilionaceous; banner twoleaved; drupe with a two-celled nut. One species, viz. B. foribunda.

BREECH, of a gun, the distance from the hind part of the base ring to the beginning of the bore, and is always equal to the thickness of the metal at the vent.

BREECHINGS, in the sea language, the

ropes with which the great guns are lashed or fastened to the ship's side. They are thus called because made to pass round the breech of the gun.

BREEZE, a shifting wind, that blows from sea or land for some certain hours of the day or night; common in Africa, and some parts of the East and West Indies. The sea breeze is only sensible near the coasts; it commonly rises in the morning about nine, proceeding slowly in a fine small black curl on the water, towards the shore; it increases gradually till twelve, and dies about five. Upon its ceasing, the land breeze commences, which increases till twelve at night, and is succeeded in the morning by the sea breeze again.

BREEZE, in brick-making, small ashes and cinders, sometimes made use of instead of coals for the burning of bricks.

BRENTUS, in natural history, a genus of insects of the order Coleoptera. Generic character: antennæ moniliform, inserted beyond the middle of the snout; head projecting into a very long, straight, cylindrical snout. There are eleven species in two divisions; A. thighs simple; B. thighs toothed. B. bifrons is black; shells striate with glabrous yellow spots: it inhabits Cayenne. In one sex the snout is cylindrical, black; antennæ short; thorax purplish, with three black lines: in the other sex the snout is projected, cylindrical, thickened at the tip with incurved jaws; thorax caniculate, black.

BREVE, in music, a note or character of time, in the form of a diamond or square, without any tail, and equivalent to two measures, or minims.

BREVE, OF BREVIS, in grammar: syllables are distinguished into longs and breves, according as they are pronounced quicker or more slow.

BREVET rank, is a rank in the army higher than that for which a person receives pay. It gives precedence when corps are brigaded, according to the date of the brevet commission.

BREVIARY, a daily office, or book of divine service in the Romish church. It is composed of matins, lauds, first, third, sixth, and ninth vespers, and the compline or post

communio.

The breviary of Rome is general, and may be used in all places; but on the model of this various others have been built, appropriated to each diocese, and each order of religious.

BREWER, a person who professes the

art of brewing. There are companies of brewers in most capital cities: that of London was incorporated in 1427, by Henry VI. and that of Paris is still older.

BREWING, the art of brewing, or of preparing a vinous fermented liquor from the farinaceous seeds, is of very high antiquity. The ancient Egyptians, from the soil and climate of their country not being favourable to the culture of the vine, were induced to seek a substitute in barley, from which, in ail probability, by the process of malting, they knew how to procure a fermented liquor. All the ancient malt liquors, however, seem to have been made entirely of barley, or some other farinaceous grain, and therefore were not generally calculated for long keeping, as this quality depends considerably, though not entirely, on the bitter extract of hops, or other vegetables, with which the liquor is mingled. Modern malt liquor is essentially composed of water, of the soluble parts of malt and hops, and of yeast.

Three or four different kinds of malt are distinguished by the brewer by their colours, which depend on the degree of heat that is used in the drying. Malt that has been dried by a very gentle heat scarcely differs in its colour from barley; if exposed to a somewhat higher temperature, it acquires a light amber-yellow hue; and by successive increments of heat, the colour becomes deeper and deeper, till, at length, it is black. The change of colour is owing to the grain being partially charred or decomposed; and in proportion to the extent to which this alteration is allowed to proceed, will the produce of sugar, that is, of fermentable matter, be, diminished. The principal advantage of high-dried malt over the paler kind, is the deep yellowish brown tinge which it gives to the liquor; but this colour may be communicated much more economically by burnt sugar. The malt, whether pale or high-dried, must be bruised between rollers, or coarsely ground in a mill before it is used, and it is found by experience, that malt which has lain to cool for some weeks is, in many respects, preferable to that which is used, as it comes hot from the mill. The first step in the process of brewing, is

Mashing. This is performed in the mashtub, which is a circular wooden vessel, shallow in proportion to its extent, and furnished with a false bottom pierced with small holes, fixed a few inches above the real bottom: when it is small it

slowly at first, but more rapidly as it be comes fine, into the lower or boiling copper. The principal thing to be attended to, is the temperature of the mash, which depends, partly on the heat of the water, and partly on the state of the malt. If any quantity of barley is mingled with twice its bulk of water, the temperature of the mass will be very nearly that of the mean temperature of the ingredients. If the palest malt is subjected to the same experiment, the temperature will be somewhat greater than that of the mean heat. The most eligible temperature upon the whole for mashing, appears to be about 185° to 190° of Fahrenheit: the heat of the water, therefore, for the first mashing, must be somewhat below this temperature, and the lower in proportion to the dark colour of the malt made use of. Thus, for pale malt, the water of the mash may be at 180° and upwards; but for high-dried brown malt, it ought not much to exceed 170o.

ought to have a moveable wooden cover. There are two side openings in the interval between the real and false bottoms; to one is fixed a pipe, for the purpose of conveying water into the tun; the other is fitted with a spigot, for the purpose of drawing the liquor out of the tun. The brewing commences by strewing the grist or bruised mait evenly over the false bottom of the mash-tun, and then, by means of the side pipe, letting in from the upper copper the proper quantity of hot water. The water first fills the interval between the two bottoms, then, forcing its way through the holes in the false bottom, it soaks into the grist, which, at first floating on the surface of the water, is thus raised off the bottom on which it was spread. When the whole of the water is let in, the process of mashing, properly so called, begins. The object in mashing, is to effect a perfect mixture of the malt with the water, in order that all the soluble parts may be extracted by this fluid: for this purpose, the grist is first incorporated with the water by means of iron rakes, and then the mass is beaten and agitated, and still further mixed by long flat wooden poles, resembling oars, which indeed is the name by which they are technically known. In some of the large porter breweries, the extent of the tun is so great, that the process of mashing cannot be adequately performed by human labour, and recourse is had to a very simple and effectual instrument for this purpose. A very strong iron screw, of the same height as the mash-tun, is fixed in the centre of this vessel, from which proceed two great arms or radii, also of iron, and beset with vertical iron teeth a few inches asunder, in the manner of a double comb; by ineans of a steam engine, or any other moving power, the iron arms, which at first rest on the false bottom, are made slowly to revolve upon the central screw, in consequence of which, in proportion as they revolve, they also ascend through the contents of the tun to the surface; then, inverting the circular motion, they descend again in the course of a few revolutions to the bottom. These alternate motions are continued till the grist and water are thoroughly incorporated. When the mashing is completed, the tun is covered in to prevent the escape of the heat, and the whole is suffered to remain still, in order that the insoluble parts may separate from the liquor the side spigot is then withdrawn, and the clear wort is allowed to run off, VOL. I.

The wort of the first mashing is always by much the richest in saccharine matter; but to exhaust the malt, a second and third mashing is required; and as no heat is generated, except in the first mashing, the water in the succeeding ones may be safely raised to nearly 190°. The proportion of wort to be obtained from each bushel of malt depends entirely on the proposed strength of the liquor. For sound small beer, thirty gallons of wort may be taken from each bushel of malt; but for the strongest ale, only the produce of the first mashing, or about six and a half gallons per bushel, is employed. But whatever be the proportion of wort required, it must be held in mind, that every bushel of well made malt will absorb and retain three and three-quarters gallons of water, and, therefore the water made use of must exceed the wort required, in the same proportion.

Boiling and hopping. If only one kind of liquor (whether ale or beer) is to be made, the produce of the three mashings is to be mixed together; but if both ale and beer are required, the wort of the first, or of the first and second mashings, is appropriated to the ale, and the remainder is set aside for the beer. All the wort destined for the same liquor, after it has run from the mashtun, is transferred to the large lower copper, and mixed while it is heating with the required proportion of hops. The stronger the wort is, the larger proportion of hops does it demand: and this is calculated in two ways, either according to the quantity of malt em